Why Would people on Welfare even try to better their lives at this point?Posted by ThaBigFella on 3/1/13 at 4:34 pm

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America is a place where being poor is not so bad....hell its borderline middle class if you get disability,food stamps, and other government handouts bc someone earning $40K a year lives a pretty similar lifestyle while actually trying....you don't even have to try though you can just be unemployed or fake a disability

My grandfather was from a foreign nation and he told me about really being poor and how it just meant you don't get certain things, he's dead today but I could imagine him laughing at the idea of "poor" people getting cell phones,healthcare,food money and nice amounts of money to live on from the government.....Im sure that was a pipe dream to his parents 80 years ago

The bottom line is people still survived somehow then so the idea they'd just die today if we cut this stuff is a joke.He used to tell me he used to ask for extra work as a teen bc it meant not having to go home to a poor house that had nothing fun to do and work was fun bc it meant more money. I don't see poor people asking for extra work these days, hell my employees don't want 1 hr over 40 hrs without asking for time and half.

Being poor in america means you get free food and good food at that see the EBT approved rotisserie chicken,healthcare is paid for while working stiffs must pay for it on their own, you can get a cellphone today from mr obama, and a little spending money to buy stuff like necessities such as ipads,tvs, and other electronics needed to survive......being poor in 1930s foreign nation meant you ate bread and rice every meal and every day he told me and that your mom made your clothes and it made you learn to work super hard so you wouldn't live like that as you grew older

WTF are people wanting to increase entitlements for again? entitlements are going to bankrupt this great nation, then what?

Anyone who has been unemployed for over a year is not really looking for a job. Working 2 low paying jobs that aren't in your field while you look for "career" work isn't fun, but that's life.

quote:WTF are people wanting to increase entitlements for again? entitlements are going to bankrupt this great nation, then what?

frick all of them. Infuriates me.

I busted arse at some minimum wage jobs and went through hell for $6.50 an hour in a steel factory for 3 months during the summer and was happy to have the job back when I was 18.

Stupid motherfukers that sit on their arse and get wellfare and bull shite when they could be busting their arse too infuriate me. But it is due to our dumb shite bleeding heart government that enables them. frick that. Let them die. Or as you say, they wouldn't just die. They would find a way and maybe become worth a damn if they were forced to.

re: Why Would people on Welfare even try to better their lives at this point?Posted by Zach on 3/1/13 at 4:49 pm to CarrolltonTiger

quote:With marginal abilites and little ability to compete, they have indeed been given a nice option to live better than much of the working classes with no stress or effort.

Absolutely true, CT. The problem is children. If they cared about setting an example for their kids they would get up in the morning and go to a job even if it was the same pay as welfare in order to instill their children with a better set of values.

But that's not gonna happen since the safety net has turned into a hammock.

re: Why Would people on Welfare even try to better their lives at this point?Posted by Tiger n Miami AU83 on 3/1/13 at 5:00 pm to Zach

quote:Absolutely true, CT. The problem is children. If they cared about setting an example for their kids they would get up in the morning and go to a job even if it was the same pay as welfare in order to instill their children with a better set of values.

Yep. I remember in HS, my dad lost his job after leaving the military and going to work for a company in management. He got pissed at the owner of the company's daughter and told the owner (her dad) that she was an incompetent idiot. Being fired was a huge blow and embarrassment for my dad and rather than collect unemploment for a while he took a job in Tennessee immediately afterwards where he had to pay to live in a hotel during the week and didn't end up netting a penny more after the hotel expenses than he would have on unemployment. But not working was an embarrassment for him, so he did it for 6 months (until he got a better job back home) because he wasn't the type to sit on his arse and get something for nothing.

Now people would look at him like he was a fool and encourage him to take a government handout instead.

re: Why Would people on Welfare even try to better their lives at this point?Posted by PrimeTime Money on 3/1/13 at 5:02 pm to ThaBigFella

This single mom I know has 5 kids and lives in an apartment with a roommate where they split the rent.

The apartment complex is pretty "meh"... it's not in a great area, but it's not the ghetto or anything.

She works as a waitress at a pool hall.

I was over there a few weeks ago bringing an old bed that I was getting rid of to her. She has a car, a cellphone, a 32" LCD HDTV, cable, dvd player, etc.

Yet she needs government help to buy formula and diapers for her baby, and food stamps.

The poor today aren't going without some things they can live without, they are simply getting slightly less quality than people who pay their own way.

Instead of living in a nice apartment, they live in a "meh" apartment. Instead of having a blu-ray player, they have a dvd player. Instead of having a 50" TV, they have a 32" LCD tv. Instead of having 300 channels, they have 150. Instead of having an Iphone, they have a year old smartphone.

They still struggle to "make ends meet", but the things they have aren't much different from other people.

re: Why Would people on Welfare even try to better their lives at this point?Posted by lsuhsc05 on 3/1/13 at 5:33 pm to ThaBigFella

quote: Posted by Message ThaBigFella Why Would people on Welfare even try to better their lives at this point? pretty soon we'll starting giving poor people stock portfolios preloaded with vanguard index funds bc they too have a right to own shares of our market!

No. They'll just take the earnings from your funds. You can keep the losses.

re: Why Would people on Welfare even try to better their lives at this point?Posted by RCDfan1950 on 3/1/13 at 5:41 pm to ThaBigFella

quote:pretty soon we'll starting giving poor people stock portfolios preloaded with vanguard index funds bc they too have a right to own shares of our market!

All a matter of semantics, BF. They ALREADY ARE getting a cut. Bernacke is propping the Market, using that money to fund the programs. When the gov. credit bubble pops...Market tanks, 401s and Union pacs go south, banks...and it ALL goes into the Gov. kitty...where it will be *fairly* allocated.

We have been played like an old fiddle. There are some really smart folk up there. We were working our asses off and enjoying the fruits of that labor...while they were planning a sure way to "fundamentally change the nation".

Done deal. Just a matter of what takes over after the reboot. God only knows.

re: Why Would people on Welfare even try to better their lives at this point?Posted by lsu13lsu on 3/1/13 at 5:44 pm to Tiger n Miami AU83

quote:frick all of them. Infuriates me.

I busted arse at some minimum wage jobs and went through hell for $6.50 an hour in a steel factory for 3 months during the summer and was happy to have the job back when I was 18.

Stupid motherfukers that sit on their arse and get wellfare and bull shite when they could be busting their arse too infuriate me. But it is due to our dumb shite bleeding heart government that enables them. frick that. Let them die. Or as you say, they wouldn't just die. They would find a way and maybe become worth a damn if they were forced to.

I've never understood why so many here hate the poor or the mentality that they are all just moochers.

Not saying some people don't play the system but there are also a lot of hard working people out there that just have a hard time affording the necessities. It's expensive to live and it's expensive to be poor.

quote:We hate the system, not the people. The system encourages this type of behavior.

I'm not at all saying that there can't be reforms made to make it more difficult for people to game the system, but there does seem to be this mentality around here that all of these people are just moochers and we should cut them off and let them fin for themselves which is just ridiculous. I know some of you here are extremists but come the frick on.

quote:I'm not at all saying that there can't be reforms made to make it more difficult for people to game the system, but there does seem to be this mentality around here that all of these people are just moochers and we should cut them off and let them fin for themselves which is just ridiculous. I know some of you here are extremists but come the frick on.